Most people know that diabetes is a serious disease of high blood sugar that can damage the heart and blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. Fewer know that pre-diabetics develop similar problems. But maybe you’re neither diabetic nor pre-diabetic. You don’t have to worry about high blood sugar, right?

Well, maybe you do.

Diabetes is currently diagnosed if fasting blood sugar (aka blood glucose) levels reach 126 mg/dL, and pre-diabetes if levels reach 100 mg/dL. But many alternative practitioners like to see their patients maintain levels below 90 mg/dL, or even 85 mg/dL, since research shows damage to body organs and tissues can begin when these levels are exceeded.

Do you know your blood sugar level? Since it tends to rise with age, it should be measured periodically.

Why is high blood sugar so damaging?

Excess sugar in the blood gets converted into triglycerides. These either become fat or they stay in the blood and increase your risk of heart disease. But even more dangerous, chronic high blood sugar damages and interferes with various cells, tissues and body functions.

William Faloon, editor of Life Extension Magazine, compares glucose in the blood to gasoline. We need enough to fuel our bodies, but excessive amounts, he says, are “like spilled gasoline [that] creates a highly combustible environment from which oxidative and inflammatory fires chronically erupt. . . . Surplus glucose relentlessly reacts with your body’s proteins, causing damaging glycation reactions while fueling the fires of chronic inflammation and inciting the production of destructive free radicals.”

Glycation is a process in which sugar molecules become “glued” to and damage body proteins and fats. It encourages premature aging, chronic disease and early death.

Glycation causes tissues to toughen and lose elasticity; blocks or slows down various biological functions; and produces pain, inflammation, neurodegeneration, muscle atrophy, LDL oxidation, DNA chromosome damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, cataracts, heart and kidney damage, and the wrinkling and aging of the skin.

If you’ve got chronic elevated blood glucose levels, what can you do to bring them down?

The major keys are diet and exercise. Get off refined carbohydrates. Eat a plant-based diet focusing on vegetables, nuts, seeds, the good fats and lean proteins. Eat small, frequent meals, each containing some protein, to keep blood sugar levels even and excess hunger and carbohydrate cravings at bay.

Regular exercise stabilizes blood sugar and insulin levels and relieves stress (which elevates blood sugar and is pro-inflammatory).

If your blood sugar levels are inching up, nip this process in the bud right now! Don’t let chronic high blood sugar age you and make you a prime candidate for disease.